The Allahabad High Court has directed the Director General of Police (DGP) of Uttar Pradesh (UP) to provide full security to jailed gangster-turned-politician and former Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) MLA Mukhtar Ansari “while shifting him from one jail to another and while producing him before any Court from jail and on the way or any other place.”
Furthermore, the Court directed that no media person would be permitted to interview the dreaded gangster and that he would be accompanied by police personnel during his ingress and egress from jail. The Court barred media persons in light of the recent killing of gangster and former Samajwadi Party (SP) MLA Atiq Ahmad and his brother Ashraf Ahmad.
“This order is being passed seeing the recent episode which occurred in the State of Uttar Pradesh, wherein in the garb of media persons some criminals had killed two under trial prisoners, who were in the custody of the Police Personnel, which matters are pending before the Apex Court. So as to ensure the safety of the accused this restriction is ordered,” said the Court. The Court further said, “Though we are not against media taking interview of the accused persons but looking to the recent episode this restriction would be in the interest of the under trial prisoner for their safety and security.”
The Court was hearing Mukhtar Ansari’s wife Afshan Ansari’s plea seeking “adequate safeguards and protection to the petitioner’s husband while he is lodged in District Jail Banda or any other jail and while he is produced before the Special Judge (MP/MLA Court), Allahabad or any other Court in Uttar Pradesh,” while pending trial in all other cases. Furthermore, it was submitted that Mukhtar Ansari is apprehending a threat to his life in the jail, where he is incarcerated.
The Court concluded, “With these observations and the averments made in the counter affidavit that full and proper proper security is being given to the husband of the petitioner, this petition stands allowed and the prayers are granted.”
Mukhtar Ansari’s convictions
On April 29, an MP/MLA Court in Uttar Pradesh’s Ghazipur convicted Mukhtar Ansari for his involvement in kidnapping Nand Kishore Rungta who was a coal industrialist and member of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) in 1996 and the murder of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MLA Krishnanand Rai in 2005. The court sentenced him to 10 years imprisonment and imposed a Rs 5 lakh fine.
Krishnanand Rai was an MLA from Muhammadabad and was close to Manoj Sinha, who was a minister for five years in a Union Government from 2014-2019. Afzal Ansari defeated Manoj Sinha to become the MP of Ghazipur.
The killing of Krishnanand Rai in November 2005 was one of the most sensational political murders in history. Krishnanand Rai was killed along with six of his other companions in the mayhem. Unfazed by the regime, the killers fired a total of 400 bullets. After the post-mortem, 67 bullets were discovered and extracted from the bodies of the deceased.
It is pertinent to note that a Ghazipur Court convicted Mukhtar Ansari and his aide Bhim Singh in a 26-year-old Gangster Case in December 2022. It is also pertinent to note that this was the third case where Mukhtar Ansari was convicted.
In September 2022, the Allahabad High Court convicted him in two cases, in one case the HC found the former MLA guilty of intimidating a jailer wherein he abused the jailer and pointed a revolver pistol at him, and threatened to kill him in 2003. In another case, the HC convicted the former MLA to 5 years imprisonment in a 23-year-old case under the Gangster Act.
